The first battle for any product is getting noticed by customers.
This isn’t the job of your demo or solution but your unique value proposition (UVP). Before paying for your product with money, customers pay you with attention:
Crafting an attention-worthy UVP is hard because you have to promise something
- in a few words (be concise),
- that’s novel (be different),
- but believable (be specific), and
- valuable enough to cause them to act (be better).
That’s quite a tall order. I’ll outline some practical steps for assembling a compelling UVP in this issue.
A UVP is NOT a List of Features
While it’s tempting to communicate differentiation in terms of your solution, it’s important to recognize that customers don’t (initially) care about your solution. They care about outcomes and removing obstacles that stand in the way of achieving them.
What is a Unique Value Proposition?
Unique Value Proposition is a single, clear compelling message that states why you are different and worth paying attention.
Examples:
- Communicate your idea clearly and concisely in under 20 minutes and get buy-in from key stakeholders
- Stop drowning in numbers
- Stop losing winnable deals
If you find some of the UVPs above lacking clarity, that’s because UVPs seldom act alone but in concert with other supporting elements like sub-headlines and images.
How to Formulate a Compelling UVP
Here’s a 5-step process for crafting a compelling UVP:
1. Identify who's it for (Early Adopters)
Homing in your UVP on your early adopter customer segment is crucial.
When you try and market your product to everyone, you end up talking to no one.
Example:
- Early-stage founders versus entrepreneurs.
2. Identify what's it for (Job-to-be-done)
Think of the use case or the job your early adopters are trying to get done with your product. Don't settle for benefits. Instead, focus on desired outcomes.
Example:
- When early-stage founders (early adopters) get hit with a killer idea, they often need to raise money (job) to get their idea off the ground (outcome).
When focusing on desired outcomes, be wary of the Cinderall tradeoff (via Andy Raskin):
To keep believability and scope in check, I recommend starting with the smallest outcome you believe will be enough to cause the customer to act:
3. Identify what they currently use to get the job done (Existing Alternatives)
This is an often overlooked step critical to crafting a compelling UVP.
Grabbing attention requires being better… and better implies comparison to the alternative.
When looking for existing alternatives, don’t limit your search only to products in your “category.” Instead, transcend category and ask how people currently get the job done.
Example:
- When early-stage founders (early adopters) get hit with a killer idea, they often need to raise money (job) to get their idea off the ground (outcome). They would typically write a 40-page business plan (existing alternative).
4. Identify what’s broken with the status quo (Obstacles)
Anchoring against problems with the status quo is the secret to crafting an effective UVP that grabs attention and causes a switch — because it’s specific, familiar, and compelling.
Example:
- When early-stage founders (early adopters) get hit with a killer idea, they often need to raise money (job) to get their idea off the ground (outcome). They would typically write a 40-page business plan (existing alternative), but business plans take too long to write, and nobody reads them anymore (obstacles).
5. Why is Your Product Better (UVP)
From here, crafting a compelling UVP means delivering a better outcome or eliminating a big-enough problem (or both). However, it's not enough to promise something incrementally better. If you are only incrementally better, the incumbent always wins.
They win because they were there first and have an established customer relationship. In other words, it's easier for customers to trust an existing alternative, even with some problems, than your new, untested, risky solution.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
To cause a switch, your unique value proposition needs to be significantly better. Think 3x-10x better.
Example:
- When early-stage founders (early adopters) get hit with a killer idea, they often need to raise money (job) to get their idea off the ground (outcome). They would typically write a 40-page business plan (existing alternative), but business plans take too long to write, and nobody reads them anymore (obstacles).
So, we built a solution that helps early-stage founders
communicate their idea clearly and concisely in under 20 minutes and get buy-in from key stakeholders—so they can spend more time building versus planning their business (UVP).
